FPA Latin America blog is proud to bring you Sean Murphy from the FPA Global Film Review Blog who has posted two reviews recently about Latin American themed movies from around the world.

The first film  is called Romero (1989) and is a film about the real Monsignor Romero who was one of the top Catholic Church leaders during El Salvador’s revolution in the 1980s. Many church officials were unable to escape the violence of the civil war, and along with Romero, many were killed in conflicts between the warring factions at the time. The film gives a good account of the issues surrounding Romero’s lack of choices in attempting to protect his community and his church from the prevalence of violence in El Salvador at the time. Many have claimed the events in El Salvador as the dark point and strongest criticism of the otherwise well respected Pope John Paul II. While still in debate today, the lack of support from the Vatican for its representatives in El Salvador at the time and the involvement of US interests in El Salvador makes this film as valid today as it was twenty years ago. There are many documentaries about Romero as well, but if one wants to understand El Salvador in the 1980s and issues in the country and Salvadoran communities abroad today, a good starting point would be looking into Romero’s struggle and the film about his life. The link to Sean’s review can be found here.

The second film is called Beyond the Gates of Splendor (2004) and is about a group of scientists who travel back in time to meet a stone aged tribe living in a region of South America where Ecuador exists today. I have not seen the film, but from what I have read of Sean’s review it sounds like a film which is a mix of events and a documentary style as family and colleagues of the scientists become part of the narrative of the film. You can read Sean’s review here.

I encourage all of you to check out these reviews and Sean Murphy’s other reviews on the FPA Global Film Review Blog. Gracias!